BBC Food & Farming Awards

Yesterday evening I had the privilege of being at the BBC's annual Food and Farming awards. It was an excellent occasion with a whole range of different organisations working in different ways to produce and promote good wholesome food. What pleased me was that one of the finalists in the "Best Farmers' Market" category was a church. St Giles in Shipbourne runs a farmers market in the nave of the church every Thursday morning from 9-11. An excellent way for the church to serve the needs of the village

Students' visit

Yesterday we had the pleasure of students from Queens College Birmingham having a brief introduction to rural life. After a trip round a dairy farm and walk round a village they visited the parish church where they were able to use the "Listening post" - a recently installed facility as part of the Stories from the Stones project (more information at www.temevalley.org.uk ) which allows visitors to the church to hear the story of the building and the community it serves thorough the centuries

a bit about me

I'm the Agricultural & Rural Chaplain for the diocese of Worcester, and this blog is a little about the work that I do. I am essentially a "free range vicar" who ranges over Worcestershire & Dudley, tying to help churches understand what is going on in agricultural & rural life and working with agricultural & rural organisations (folk like the National Farmers Union, Country Land and Business Association...) so they know the church is involved and interested in rural life .
I "roost" in the Martley area and if I'm not ranging elsewhere then I'm available to the local churches.
I hope this blog will help folk to be in touch with what I'm doing. I'm open to suggestions.